I had a little over 200 pics on photobucket-2% of my storage limit and all my links are gone. I saved all my photos onto my computer and deleted my photobucket account, which says will take 2 days to delete my account.

Wow, "blackmail" is right. "Don't worry, your existing photos are still safe...if you pay us." I'm a big fan of schadenfreude, so I can't wait to see how the backlash plays out.

For Yahoo users, you automatically have access to Flickr. I think it's a good service and have no complaints. Since it's riding off of Yahoo's coffers, I don't see it going turning into extortionware anytime soon.